Radiohead slates two New York shows, 'SNL,' 'Colbert' in sole U.S. concerts

Radiohead's slow-burning promotion of "The King of Limbs" has finally crossed the Atlantic, first with the announcement of a "Colbert Report" stop, "Saturday Night Live" and now a pair of shows later this month in New York.

The British band has announced Sept. 28 and 29 concerts at New York's Roseland Ballroom, with tickets going up just a couple days before at 10 a.m. on Sept. 26 via Ticketmaster. That room has the comparitively tiny capacity of ~3,200.

The last time Radiohead regularly gigged in the U.S. was in Aug. 2008. These mark the first concerts in support of newest album "The King of Limbs," released earlier this year.

In addition to these live shows, the band will initiate "The Colbert Report's" very first hour-long episode on Sept. 26; according to a release from Comedy Central, the group will play tracks from "TKoL" and "The Daily Mail," one of their unreleased tracks promoted during their "TKoL" stints overseas.

Additionally, Radiohead is scheduled for a stop on "Saturday Night Live" on Sept. 24, the comedy show's season premiere.

And at the moment, it doesn't look like they're going to stray far from the NYC area.

So why the comedy/variety shows? Perhaps those appearances will appeal to the widest swatch of people, and for a band so private, perhaps this is their way of showing more personality.

And why now? As we previously reported, "The King of Limbs" has been getting a remix makeover all summer long, culminating in double-disc release "TKOL 1234567" out on Oct. 11.

I'm a little surprised they're not promoting themselves in the U.S. closer to that release date, but maybe Colbert and "SNL" have scheduling ideas of their own around that release date, like AI's Lauren Alaina, the comeback of Evanescence or solo boy-brother band breakout Joe Jonas. But for a band that hasn't tried too terribly hard to push this latest album, any uptick is notable.